Almost Spring Chicken Dinner

Smokey Maple Brine: 3/4c kosher salt, 1/2c sugar, 1/2c maple syrup, a bunch of dashes of good quality liquid smoke.  Dissolve all in 4 cups hot water.  Add 4 cups cold water and a couple trays of ice.  Brine for at least 4 hrs, up to 6.

Inspired entirely of the need to free up freezer space over the next 6 months in order to accomodate this upcoming growing season's stash, I pulled out our last General Butler's chicken and a container of stuffing left over from last Thanksgiving.  The stuffing was not your ordinary bread stuffing.  No-no.  It was a vegetable tempeh stuffing, made with all kinds of little goodies that I'll get into later, including tempeh that, too, was a freezer cull in and of its own right.  Being of frugal Yank stock, I seldom throw anything away.  Truly, it has to look like we'd get poisoned for me to throw food away.  Okay, I jest.  A little.

At the farmers' market this past Saturday, I scored several bags of greens from Meadow's Mirth.  This spinach is worth pushing people out of the way for: sweet, buttery, tender-tender-tender (there was no way I was using heat against it for this dinner).  Now listen, be nice to your fellow shoppers. In-line patience starts with you.  Not me, you.

     
The allure of spinach photography.

So, no heat.  Instead, I tossed it in a very mild champagne vinaigrette, and topped it with the tempeh stuffing. A meal in itself.

That's the last of our butternut squash, too.  I picked up a large, long and slender (don't you even go there) squash from Brookford Farm back in early February at the Exeter market.  Used a third in a risotto concoction one night, and another third, roasted in cubes, for a steak dinner.  Not bad, three dinners from one squash.  But now it's gone...waah.

Okay, so that tempeh stuffing:

Last night I could detect currants, chestnuts and bits of mushrooms.  I had used a mirepoix base (onion, carrot, celery).  I remember the reason for this tempeh stuffing, which means I know I initially used olive oil and vegetable to stock to make it.  Last night I completely fattened it up and drizzled a copious amount of melted butter all over it, and added a layer of toasted pine nuts to its middle ("pine nut surprise stuffing!").  Several splashes of Bragg's liquid aminos (an alternative to soy sauce) also perked it back up.  It was sublime over the spinach, and what I'll be having for lunch today.  'Course, with this time change, it'll feel like breakfast.